Apparatus for purifying grain or other products.



'No.,737,855. 1 PATENTED SEPT. "1, 1903'.

w. T. MoGRAY.'

APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING GRAIN OR' OTHER PRODUCTS.

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No. 737,355. PATENTED SEPT.1,J1903.

A W. 'T. MuGRAY. A APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING GRAIN OR OTHER PRODUCTS.

APPLIUATION FILED AUG. 3, 1901.

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luff/arm? No. 737,855. Patented September 1, 1903.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VARREN T. MGCRAY, OF KENTLAND, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN GRAIN PURIFIER CONSTRUOTING COMPANY, OF PIERRE, SOUTH DA- KOTA, A CORPORATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING GRAIN OR OTHER PRODUCTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 737,855, dated September 1, 1903.

Application filed August 3, 1901. Serial No. 70,725. (No model.)

T all whom it y 001M677 purifying other substances, and in such case Be it known that LIVARREN T. MGORAY, of the structural details will be varied.

Kentland, in the county of Newton and State As shown in the drawings, Figure 1 is a of Indiana, have invented certain new and View,'part1y in section and partly in elevauseful Improvements in Apparatus for Purition, of an apparatus embodying myimprovefying Grain or other Products; andIdo herements. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a furby declare that the following is a full, clear, nace for generating the purifying fumes, and exact description thereof, referencebeing taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a verhad to the accompanying drawings, and to tical section of said furnace, taken on line 3 3 [o the letters of reference marked thereon,which of Fig. 2. form a part of this specification. As shown in said drawings, A designates This invention relates to an improved apa vertically-elongated chamber having the paratus for purifying grains or other prodappearance of a shaft and through which ucts by removing therefrom impurities clinggrain is adapted to pass from the upper to 15 ingthereto-such as stains, mold, dirt, must, the lower end thereof. Said chamber is smut, and bacteriawhich notonly lessen the made of considerable height, being made market value of the product by reason of disfrom thirty to forty feet, depending upon the coloration thereof, but also injure the quality conditions in each instance. At the upper thereof, and which bacteria tends to destroy end of said chamber is a conveyer shell or no the germinating quality of the grain. spout B, which is adapted to lead from an The apparatus herein shown has been deelevator or other like place (not shown) and vised as one means of carrying out an imthrough which grainis delivered to the champroved process of purifying grains or other her. The lower end of said chamber is proproducts, as set forth in my copending appli vided with an outlet chute or spout C, which 25 cation for United States Letters Patent, Secommunicates with the shell of a dischargerial No. 70,726, filed of even date herewith. conveyer D, and the chamber is provided at Said process consists generally of passing its lower end with a defiectingboard A, the grain or other product through a cham which directs the grain to said chute. Said her and subjecting said product while passchute or spout is provided with a valve or go ing through the chamber to the action of the gate 0, by which the passage of grain there So fumes of a purifying agent, such as sulfur, through is regulated. The chamber A is consaid purifying agent being heated to generate structod at its upper end to provide a ventithe fumes and being introduced into the later A", through which thefumes and steam chamber, together with a dampening agent, may escape, and is provided above said ven- 35 such as steam, whereby the product is damtilator with an overhanging roof A Said pened by the steam, which serves to loosen chamber is provided interiorly thereof with the investing coating of the foreign submeans for retarding the descent of the grain stances thereon, and the fumes thereafter attherethrough, whereby the body of the grain tack the loosened vesture and carry away the in its passage or descent through the cham- 40 objectionable foreign substances and leave her is broken up and intimately exposed to the product in a cleanly and sweetened conthe action of the fumes. Said retarding dition. means consists of a plurality of inclined The apparatusherein shown has been de-- shelves arranged one above the other from vised for purifying grains-such as barley, the upper to the lower end of the chamber 45 oats, and the like-and the invention refers and inclined alternately in opposite direc- 5 to means for treating the fumes prior to their tions at an angle of about forty-five degrees,

' entrance to the purifying-chamber and also as herein shown. Said shelves are made of to structural details of the said chamber. So open-work construction, permittingthe grain far as the means for cooling the fumes is to pass downwardly therethrough, and, as

50 concerned the apparatus maybe designed for herein shown, consists of inclined end bars E, affixed to the sidewalls of the chamber, and transverse slats e, fitting at the ends thereof in upwardly-opening notches or recesses in the upper faces or margins of said bars. This construction enables the slats to be lifted out of the bars when it is desired to remove one or more of the shelves for the purpose of dislodging grain which may collect in any part of the chamber. Said slats need not be fastened to the'bars by permanent fastening means, there being no tendency for the same to drop out of their places, and therefore may be readily removed when such removal is desired. The end bars of the shelves are fastened to the side walls of the chamber by wooden pins passingtherethrough and into said walls and by tenons at the ends thereof which engage m'ortises in said end walls, it being undesirable to use metal fastening devices for these purposes because of the deteriorating action of the sulfur fumes thereon. The chamber is provided at one side thereof with a door A, which permits access to the chamber for the purpose of cleaning the chamber or other purpose. It is desirable that the gate or valve 0' be so regulated with respect to the inlet of the grain as to fill the bottom of the chamber with a body of grain for a height of five or six feet to prevent the fumes escaping into the discharge-conveyer. An inspection-window A will also desirably be built in the wall of the chamber, near the base thereof, in order to readily determine the level of the grain in the chamber, whereby said level may be by the use of the valve 0 uniformly maintained.

F designates a furnace in which the fumes of the purifying agent are generated. Said furnace is shown in detail in Figs. 2 and 3 and consists of an elongated inclosure having a substantially rectangular fioorf and an arched roof f. Said furnace is provided on its side and end walls with openings f f respectively, and is provided in its front Wall with an opening closed by doors f through which latter opening the sulfur or other purifying agent is adapted to be inserted into the furnace. Said furnace rests on a concrete foundation Fand is surrounded by a housing or inclosure F made of any suitable form and shown more clearly in Fig. 1. The housing is provided with a door F and is constructed to provide in front of the furnace a storage-room F which is entered through said door and in which the purifying agent is stored preparatory to burning. The furnace proper is surrounded at its sides, back, and top by a cooling-space F said space being formed at the sides thereof between the furnace and the side wall of the housing, at the end between the furnace and the end wall of the housing, and at the top between the arched roof of the furnace and an arched Wall E, extending over the furnace from one side wall to the other of the housing, as shown in Fig. 2. The interior of the furnace comwardly from the storage-chamber, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. H designates a steam-pipe through which steam is introduced into the purifying-chamber for the purpose of dampening the grain. Said steam-pipe may receive steam from any suitable source, as from a generator (not shown) which supplies steam to the engines about the elevator plant.

In order to positively force the fumes from the furnace F through the pipe G into the purifying-chamber A, in the apparatus shown the steam-pipe H is made to enter the fumepipe G at or near the entrance of said latter pipe to the chamber and acts as an injector to draw the fumes into thechamber. As herein shown, the fume-pipe G is provided near its entrance to the chamber with a downwardly-directed or offset portion 9 and a short horizontal part g, which enters the chamber, and the steam-pipe enters the horizontal part 9' thereof at its intersection with the vertical part So far as the features of improvement constituting the present invention are concerned it is obviously immaterial whether the fumes are directed into the purifyingchamber by the action of the steam or whether said agents enter the chamber through separate pipes.

In practicing my process by the use of the apparatus herein shown sulfur or other purifying agent is placed on the fioorf of the furnace F and ignited, and the fumes thereof pass from the furnace through the openings f f into the cooling-chamber F and from thence through the pipe G into the chamber A, together with steam entering through the pipe I-I, said steam causing an inwardly-db rected current, by which the fumes are forced into the chamber. The grain is passed continuously through the purifying-chamber A, being admitted at the top and discharged at the bottom thereof. Steam and fumes are admitted to the chamber A and act upon the grain therein to purify the same in the manner before described.

The cooling-chamber F is made relatively large with respect to the discharge-openings leading to the fume-pipe G and to the aggregate area of the openings leading from the furnace F into the cooling-chamber, so that the speed or velocity of the fumes through said cooling-chamber is decreased or lessened. As a result a portion of the heat of the fumes while in said chamber is lost by radiation through the walls of the housing and the wall F so that when the fumes enter the pipe G they are under a considerably less temperature than when escaping from the furnace. The fumes therefore enter the purifyingchamber at a relatively low temperature and at a temperature less than that of the steam entering through the pipe H. As a result of this operation the heat of the fumes does-not tend to drive off the moisture from the steam entering through the pipe H, as would be true if the fumes were introduced directly into the purifying-chamber at their maximum temperature. Furthermore, the loss of heat from the fumes prior to their introduction into the purifyingchamber is advantageous, because of the fact that said fumes do not tend to drive oft the moisture from the grain, as would be true if the fumes at the original temperature of generation were permitted to enter said chamber.

It is essential to a proper purification of grain by the process mentioned that a certain percentage of moisture be added to the grain after its introduction into the purifying apparatus, (the amount depending upon the condition of the grain and the quantity of moisture carried thereby when introduced into the apparatus,) as if the proper moistened condition of the grain be not maintained the fumes will have little or no effect toward removing the foreign substances therefrom. WVith my construction, therefore, the steam is permitted to enter the purifying-chamber without losing any of its moisture, so that the grain is moistened to the desired extent preparatory to the action of the fumes thereon, and the fumes being in a relatively cool state tend to morereadily combine with the moisture upon the surface of the grain to produce snlfurous acid, and therefore the efficiency of the purifying agent is greatly increased over the process wherein the fumes are introduced into the purifying-chamber at their maximum temperature.

So far as the cooling of the fumes after they have passed from the fu rnace is concerned, it

is obvious that such cooling may take place in a cooling-chamber entirely removed from the housing-as, for instance, a large storagetank, into which the fumes pass from the furnace and from which said fumes are directed to the purifying-chambers. It is furthermore obvious that the fumes may be cooled by other means differing in details from those herein shown and suggested.

The construction and arrangement of the retarding devices in the purifying-chamber are of considerable importance, as owing. to the inclination of the shelves and the arrangement of the slats or bars thereon the grain is permitted to pass freely therethrongh, and at the same time the bodyot' the grainis broken in such manner that the fumes and steam become intimately intermixed therewith and act uniformly on all parts of the grain. Another advantage of the particular construction shown is that the shelves may be readily removed in case such removal is desired, the door A affording access to the interior of the chamber for the purpose of removing or repairing the shelves.

It is obvious that changes may be made in the structural details without departing from the spirit of myinvention, and I do not wish to be limited thereto except as hereinafter made the subject of specific claims. For instance, other forms of dampening agent may be employed than steam and may be applied to the product in a manner differing from that herein shown.

I claim as my invention An apparatus for the purpose set forth, comprising a chamber through which the product to be purified is passed, a furnace in which the fumes are generated, walls surrounding the top, side walls and one end wall of the furnace and forming a cooling-chamber which communicates with the interior of the furnace by means of a plurality of openings formed in the side and end walls of the furnace, a pipe leading from the top of said cooling chamber to the purifying chamber and means for drawing the fumes through said pipe from the said cooling chamber and forcing the same into the purifyingchamber.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 27th day of July, A. D. 1901.

WARREN T. MCCRAY.

Witnesses:

ADAH E. BUSH, JOHN Z. JOHNSTON. 

